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Merlin – The magic is back

'Merlin' has gone from light, frivolous episodes back to where it's best -- dark, plotty, and thought-provoking. As in, provoking actual thoughts, and not just about how pretty shirtless men are.

- Season 3, Episode 5 - "The Crystal Cave"

While it’s not exactly secret how deeply I love Merlin, I’m certainly not shy about mocking it. Let’s face it, it’s objectively an absolutely ridiculous show, between the trolls and the goblins and the CGI monsters of  dubious quality and the talking dragons and the farts and whatnot. But then there are weeks, like this week, where I forget I’m watching a ridiculous show and get so deeply invested I no longer care about gaping plot holes or the massive failures in regards to romantic plot line.

(In fact, I could pretty much write the entire column and then some just about how on and perfect Merlin and Arthur’s relationship was this week, about all the love between them, about how much better the show becomes when they stop fearing the gay and embrace it, blah blah blah, but that seems unfair when we hardly had any Arthur and Gwen interaction to compare it to besides the most awkward hug in the history of the world.)

But no. This week, there was plot. And when there’s plot, there’s Merlin being anguished and endearing and in desperate need of a hug. From Arthur, preferably, in place of Gwen. Don’t look at me like that, it’s not like they weren’t laying what could have been groundwork for it in the first ten minutes or so with all the old married couple conversations about trust, or Merlin crying over Arthur and holding him close and and telling him how much he needs him or … um. Right.

The point is, Merlin had it hard this episode. Which, granted, he has it hard every episode, but this one seemed particularly unfair. It seems to me that fate, in the Merlin universe, is rather fixed. How could there be seers, if the future wasn’t pre-destined or at least, strongly structured? This is the second time Merlin’s attempted to alter what he’s seen in a crystal, and both times he’s failed miserably. Merlin’s inept, but I doubt he’s that inept.

So seriously, it pisses me off that the Dragon’s been laying all this blame at Merlin’s feet. If Merlin has no ability to change the future, why is the Dragon blaming Merlin like he can?  What was Merlin supposed to do? His primary objective is still to see Arthur become the greatest king of all time, and to be his trusted adviser and ally. How’s Merlin supposed to do that, to keep Arthur’s trust, when he tells him that oh yeah, in addition to magic, he killed Morgana. But it was for everyone’s own good, really! Because this in no way will re-enforce all of Arthur’s fears about magic and ruin everything. That’s an awful lot of guilt to put on his skinny little shoulders. Unless, of course, the Dragon is fated to guilt Merlin, in which case, my head hurts and this has officially gotten too philosophical for me.

I have a feeling this is one of those episodes I’m going to take a long time to process and will change in meaning and significance for me as this season goes on, which makes it hard to review, so here’s what I’ve got so far: Merlin and Arthur are lovely and adorable, both separately and together.  Magic is badass but also sometimes bad. Uther’s kind of a bastard, but not nearly as much as Morgana, who apparently has  no ability to think beyond her own petty grievances, and they kind of deserve each other and maybe should be shipped off to a cave to resolve their issues and leave everyone else alone. Someone needs to give Merlin a hug and some cookies, preferably Arthur. And preferably shirtless, but that’s more for my benefit and less for Merlin’s, because it’s been, like, two whole episodes that Arthur’s kept his shirt on.

It’s like this show and I don’t even know each other anymore.

Photo Credit: BBC

Categories: | Episode Reviews | Features | General | Merlin | TV Shows |

5 Responses to “Merlin – The magic is back”

October 10, 2010 at 10:32 AM

You seem to forget merlin look of pure jealousy and consequent stomping off when he saw arthur trying to disentangle himself from gwen (yeah, my mind edited that part, because as you said “most awkward hug in the history of the world”). And i have a question. The dragon wanted merlin to kill uther or at least not to stop his impeding death in some episodes of the last seasons. And now morgana wants to kill uther and the dragon wants merlin to kill her? Why wouldn’t he want morgana to do the deed and kill uther if that is what he wanted all along? I guess my mind has been too distracted with arthur’s torso. WE MISS YOU, please come back.

October 10, 2010 at 10:44 AM

It may not have been jealousy, but there was certainly some angst going on.

I think that the dragon wants Uther to die eventually so Arthur can become king (obviously), but is concerned with Morgana on a long-term level, since she’ll be part of Arthur’s eventual downfall once he’s the king. If it’s a choice between prolonging Uther’s life a little and Arthur fulfilling his destiny, I think the dragon would choose Arthur’s destiny any time.

October 10, 2010 at 10:46 AM

The most awkward hug in the history of world. That is SO TRUE. It save me for my dinner. Ok, maybe I shall be optimistic though. I can save the money and don’t have to worry about my weight.

October 11, 2010 at 11:47 PM

I agree wholeheartedly with the whole “you can’t change the future” message from this episode. I’m sure I’m remembering it wrong, but I believe Talleisen even says something to Merlin along the lines of “We are supposed to meet at this time, and you must look at the crystals.”

I maintain that Merlin was supposed to see the future in order to enable it occurring (since we saw over and over that it was his direct actions which caused everything). This is necessary because Morgana MUST learn that she is Uther’s daughter in order to (I think) claim Camelot. This lets Merlin and Arthur band together the knights and reclaim it or something to that effect.

IN SUMMATION, Merlin had to screw this up because it HAD to happen in order for Arthur to retake his kingdom and truly be the king that the people deserve – one who fights to reclaim, etc etc.

IDK. IT’S HOW I RATIONALIZE HOW EMO THIS EP MADE ME.

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